Diwali

On Wednesday 7th November, residents, staff and visitors took part in some Diwali celebrations. Diwali is the Festival of Light celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains. It is a festival of new beginnings and is to celebrate the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness.

We started with a Diwali inspired yoga session held by Gail from Wonderful You Yoga. She led everyone in gentle chair based yoga and then did a guided meditation. This was well attended and the residents really enjoyed it. Some were so relaxed, they actually fell asleep.

Following on from the yoga and meditation, we then enjoyed some Indian snacks and beer. Residents and families liked sampling the different foods and it was lovely to have such a social activity. Yoga has proved very popular over the past year with residents. It not only helps to provide gentle exercise for them, but also helps to improve their mental well-being.

We look forward to our future yoga sessions and thank Gail for coming each week to hold them.

Community Initiative with Holy Family Catholic Primary School

Over the last few months we have been researching lots of different activities for our residents to take part in. We want to be able to offer a broad selection, not only to ensure that we are providing lots of variety but to also help contribute and maintain positive mental well-being.

One of the initiatives we have embarked upon is working with Holy Family Catholic Primary School. There has been lots of research carried out on the integration of elderly people with young people, and how it prevents feelings of isolation, promotes friendship and respect and is beneficial for preventing depression and improving physical health.

Our first session took place on Tuesday 30th October, when a group of children from Holy Family came along to Holly Bank to have a joint session with our residents and volunteers from The Atkinson. The volunteers brought along their WWII Memorabilia Suitcase. Holy Family's Year 6 students are currently taking part in a WWII project, so they came to look at the memorabilia and listen to first-hand accounts of what it was like during WWII from our residents who had lived through it.

Lots of items of memorabilia were passed around, whilst the ladies from The Atkinson talked about the history of the items. The children got to dress up in the style of clothes from the era. They also got to measure out an air raid shelter to try and understand the size and how frightening it could have been to have to be inside one for great periods of time.

We thought the session went really well. The children were really eager to learn and our residents loved telling stories of their memories from that time. The children had lots of questions for our residents and enjoyed listening to their stories.

Our residents commented on what a lovely group of children had come to visit them, and they have been telling their families about the time they spent with the children.

It was really lovely to watch residents and children interacting together.

We are going to be holding sessions with Holy Family every half term and we look forward to building on our relationship with them. We are really grateful for the time they are happy to spend with us to help make this a really great community initiative.